Litchfield swim team decides against 'LSD' shirts in school

LITCHFIELD >> Controversy has arisen after a group of students on the Litchfield swimming and diving team wore shirts to school sporting the abbreviation for their swim team, which just happens to spell out 'LSD.'

Initially, it was believed that the entire team had worn these shirts to school, and that they were forced by the school to change out of them. According to several Litchfield High officials, this is inaccurate.

LHS principal Kristen Della Volpe said that the students had chosen to change out of the shirts themselves. Della Volpe did not comment any further given that she did not want to address parent's concerns by way of the media.

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"I understand that before an event, before a major meet get together, have a pasta dinner, they make shirts, they do a teambuilding thing," Gayle Carr, board of education member, said at Wednesday's budget meeting. "Unfortunately because we are Litchfield, Litchfield swimming and diving abbreviates as LSD."

Carr, along with one swimming and diving parent, spoke out against what they at the time seemed to believe was a school decision to force the students to change out of their 'LSD' shirts at the BOE meeting.

"It just seems to me that sometimes we go a little far in interpreting some of the rules regarding what people can say and not say," Carr said. "Their name is no different than any other swimming and diving team. It just happen to be Litchfield's."

Litchfield swimming and diving head coach Gordon Brown said that there is a lot of inaccurate information going around. He dispelled the rumor that the entire team had worn said shirts, saying that it was only a select few, and that they were told by the coaching staff not to wear the 'LSD' shirts to school but did anyway.

Brown said that it was the student's choice to change out of these shirts.

"They weren't asked to take the shirts off, it was a group decision by themselves," Brown said. "They realized they did something wrong [and to] make up for it, they all decided as a group to not wear the shirts."

Brown said that people can feel free to contact him if an issue like this arises. Contrary to what was said at the BOE meeting, Brown also mentioned that he didn't see the incident as having any effect on team performance.

"I don't think that it affected the team's morale at all," he said. "When you train for an entire season and you prepare yourself for a championship, to have something go wrong on the day before is not gonna ruin your entire season when you're that focused."